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Dakar 2012

When your grumbling over the cost of a new tyre think of the owners of these £30,000 Dakar Rally bikes. One was a KTM 450 Rally replica and the other was a Yamaha. The cause of the fires was “Camel Grass” - packing into the sump shield - being a light by the ultra hot down pipes.  The Frontrow GB team supported by Edmondson Racing lagged their front pipes the next night with an Asbestos heat wrap and all the fuel lines were put inside a heat shield tubing to make sure they were not the next victims! The heat was so intense that it melted just about everything aluminium including the swing arm, fork tubes and yokes etc. Needless to say the owners of the two bike were gutted.

The heat of some days was incredible at over 40 degrees C and with very little wind it felt very hot indeed. Stan Watt actually finished in 33rd place in the end as some riders were given extra penalties from various rule infringements after final parc ferme inspections. It was not quite as high as he had hoped but in all honesty not a bad result at all when you look at the quality names above him from all forms of Off Road disciplines. Stan (pictured left) had to be regularly hosed down to prevent him from spontaneously combusting.